


The True Skill Of Umino Iruka

by Kiterie



Series: Formspring Drabbles [7]
Category: Naruto
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-12
Updated: 2010-07-12
Packaged: 2017-11-27 14:00:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/662800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiterie/pseuds/Kiterie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Iruka is only a chunin, but he has a skill unlike anyone else in the entire village and Kakashi can see it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The True Skill Of Umino Iruka

Kakashi leaned back against the wall and watched as team after team handed in their report. It amazed him that no matter how beat down and sad they looked the chunin could smile and say something even if it was just a slightly teary 'thank you' and the person's mood would change completely. Nobody else had quite the same effect. The simplest smile could make that hopeless, drowning, _ache_... bearable. The words, the expressions, the emotions behind them were always there, always honest, and always visible. He wondered where the younger man had learned that. _'Who taught you how to do that?'_

Slowly the room emptied. The two other chunin on duty disappeared with promises of bringing food and coffee back. They were alone and for a long moment they watched each other from across the room, neither saying a word. The unasked question of what Kakashi was doing, hung in the air.

"Who taught you how to do that?" The words were out before Kakashi could think about how they sounded.

Iruka blinked at him, seemingly surprised by the question.  "Taught me what?"

"Where did you learn that? The..." Kakashi paused trying to think exactly how to describe what Iruka did. "How do you always know what to say?"

"I don't. I just..." Iruka tilted his head down, his fingers running along the edge of a report still sitting in front of him before looking back up. "It's a lot of different things. I see a kid come back and some of them don't have anyone so I think about what I would want my parents to say and I say that." He smiled softly and set the paper aside. "Even if they failed I want them to know I'm glad they're back. Everyone makes mistakes, everyone fails. It hurts when we do but as long as they come back... that's what's important."

It was what a parent would say and it explained why the younger shinobi looked at Iruka the way they did and Kakashi nodded his understanding. He walked over and set his own report in front of Iruka. "You do that with the older ones too? Pretend we're all little kids?"

Laughing Iruka shook his head. "Sometimes," he admitted still chuckling softly under his breath. "With ones like you I think about the kinds of things we're asked to do. I think of the things I don't have to do as often, or in some cases ever, because of my responsibilities with the academy. I think about it and--" Iruka took the report, not really looking at it. "--how can I not be grateful? How can I not be in awe of how hard they work? Of all that they do?"

Kakashi smiled and closed his uncovered eye. It was what he should have expected from the chunin and he didn't doubt for a second the honesty in the words. Opening his eye, he leaned forward, looked the younger man in the eyes and then smiled again. His eye crinkled in the characteristic way, a well-practiced but honest expression for him. "Thank you, Iruka-Sensei." 

"For what?" Iruka asked, his voice a mix of confusion and amusement or possibly embarrassment by the slightly nervous chuckle in it.

"For all you do. My Sensei is the only other man I knew capable of what you do." It wasn't until that moment that he realized why Iruka stood out to him, who Iruka reminded him of. That smile, that openness... and subtle sharpness about others that quite possible went beyond even Ibiki's skills at least when it came to making the other person feel better.

Iruka's cheeks darkened, the scar on them standing out against the bright pink flush.

Kakashi stepped back and turned to go. He was strangely reluctant to do so.

"Kakashi-san..."

He turned and raised a questioning eyebrow at the chunin, asking, without voicing the question, what he wanted.

"Uhm..." Iruka smiled brightly, the blush still bright on his cheeks. "...see you around."

It was obviously not what he'd been going to say but Kakashi smiled anyway and nodded. He definitely wanted to see the other again. Maybe then Iruka would tell him what he'd been about to say.


End file.
